One rule I don’t like: You can’t have another player’s cards in your hand. There is nothing fun about this rule and it limits design space. This is rule 217.1a:

If an object would go to any library, graveyard, or hand other than its owner’s, it goes to its owner’s corresponding zone. If an instant or sorcery card would come into play, it remains in its previous zone.

I want to be able to have opponent’s cards in my hand. I would like the Magic 2010 rules changes to include the rules change that allows us to play the opponent’s cards. In order to do this, the rule above can be changed to be exactly the same but without mentioning the word “hand.” I agree that it would be a mistake to have an opponent’s cards in my library or graveyard, and this rule can still prevent that from happening.

There are already cards that let me play the opponents cards “as if” they are in my hand. (Shared Fate.) So, why not let me actually have their cards in my hand? Perhaps Wizards of the Coast is worried that I might forget to give the opponent’s cards back after the game. However, this should be irrelevant considering that Control Magic (gaining control of the opponents permanents) leads to the same problem. Yes, there are lots of mistakes we can make in life, but that shouldn’t prevent us from playing a fun game. (Also, cards like Shared Fate seem to lead to this same problem.)

Another reason that it might be a bad idea to have the opponent’s cards in our hand is because they would be “marked cards.” My answer: So what? This is not a good reason to forbid having opponents’ cards in our hands. If we have to discard a card at random, then some sort of randomization can still be used.

Right now, Wizards of the Coast allows us to play the opponent’s cards “as if” they are in our hand. This is a creative work-around of the rule above used by cards like Shared Fate, but they are very rare. More of these cards could have been made, and many creative things can happen. Consider the following:

Alternate Reality basically makes two players switch hands. This is pretty elegant with the keyword “memorize,” but it could be more elegant by actually allowing players to have opponents’ cards in their hands.

I doubt that M10 will include this rules update. It is a pretty big one and would have probably been announced by now. So, this is still a good opportunity for Unglued 3. For example, Satanic Tutor:

My next article will be posted on Friday 6-19-2009.Alternate Reality’s artwork is by Soonia-Mai under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.Satanic Tutor’s artwork is by asuka111 under the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 License.